Is it detrimental to the Z-Wave network to have some devices out of service for extended periods without removing them from the network?
When I was running my dimmer modules on VeraPlus it was stated that removal of a device from service for long periods of time would disrupt the Z-Wave network. And those devices should be unPaired until needed. I don't know if that recommendation was due to the inherent way the Z-Wave network is built or unique to the VeraPlus firmware.
It depends.
How many times have we heard THAT?
If the device is a repeater, then clearly it can disrupt the ZWave mesh. You wouldn't necessarily know what's using it. You'd find out!! Instability would arrive.
I have a handful of portable devices "stored" here, plugged into a socket... just so I don't have to remove them. I keep pretending I'm gonna need one of them soon.
I'd suggest powering it off, then doing a ZWave repair to have the Hub find and distribute a path/route.
I agree with csteele. I came from Vera as well and my understanding is that the Vera would periodically heal the z-wave network. What's great about Hubitat is that it doesn't automatically do this as far as I know. This will be my first Christmas with Hubitat and I plan on avoiding any network repairs as long as I have one of my "temporary" outlets plugged so it shouldn't get used as a repeater.
Thanks,
This will be my first Christmas with HE (perhaps everyone's). After the season is over I will try remove without un-pairing and see what happens.
My main goal is to not have to repair every time I wish to use them. Also to keep my Rules or lighting app intact and not have to recreate them every year.
BTY If I include my X-10 days, I've been doing this for well over 20 years
I have a Z-Wave device I pull out each year. So far no problems with it.
Also, I wouldn't worry about doing a Z-Wave repair --> that is, I will do one once I put that device in service. Do another one later on. Z-Wave repairs should be done probably once a month anyway. Just don't pile them one on top of another.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a z-wave scheduler for folks like you and I that repair our mesh once a month? 
How about exposing the command like shutdown & reboot?
If we had an http get or put command we could use for z-wave repair it would be easy to schedule.
Or maybe an internal command that I could use in a scheduling app to run the z-wave repair?
It wouldn’t take long to create a little app to schedule the run.
How about it?
@bravenel @bobbyD
Andy
Coming to RM in next release. Also coming additional means to schedule things and use dates.
I have had a cree bulb on the network for about 3 months now. It's been off. Sitting on my desk for that amount of time due to lack of a lamp. I plugged it in to see. Bahliiing .... fired right up. I think you'll be fine. It's not like they have IP addresses, so it doesn't lose that address to another device periodically. Hope this helps.
The Cree Connected bulbs are ZigBee, unless there are ones I'm not familiar with. ZigBee is a bit more resilient than Z-Wave here: if a device is routing through a repeater and that router is no longer available, it will automatically select another in range; Z-Wave won't do that without a repair.
Good to know what others' (and Bruce's own) experiences are! I have a plug I tend to use for a fan in the summer and Christmas lights for part of the winter, in different parts of my house, and only ran into problems (and even then not many) when I was on Home Assistant with it last winter and had it set to run a Z-Wave repair early in the morning every day (not sure if that was the default, but I seem to remember being easily steered in that direction, a frequency I would probably not recommend to anyone). 
Hi, @bravenel. I apologize if I’m overlooking something (I have been searching around the community here), but I’m having trouble finding whether Z-wave repair has been exposed as a URL (for purposes of scheduling in RM). Would you please post that URL if it had, indeed, been exposed? Thanks.
Download the Hubitat app
